Mercenary
by Invisible Pheebs
Summary: Rose was no good, and it showed. It showed in the coy grin, smouldering cigarette, bloodied lip or the fact she had an eye patch obstructing half her face. The woman moved with a grace that came from years of extensive training, and the way she looked at you and smiled: knowing she could equally kill you or screw you where you stood. Roy had seen nothing like it, but he liked it.


As Thea walked through the Glades, she kept her eyes downcast and tried not to provoke anyone. Though she had this eerie feeling that Roy would know if anyone dared to attack her and subsequently beat the shit out of them, she always tried not to not seem _too _rich. These twenty four blocks of crime and suffering were something that she still feared lightly. Thea knew that she was one of those spoon fed trust-fund kids, despite her wild time drinking and partying. She wasn't ever going to be able to put up a fight - and she could barely run in heels. Roy had taught her the basics, how to throw a left jab and a pretty okay right hook. It would do little against most of the knives and occasional gun that was in the hands of many occupants of the neighbourhood. No wonder Roy tried not to go out anywhere. It didn't even matter if she was walking down a well lit alleyway with all of her valuables hidden from sight. She'd still get jumped just for 'being that girl from the tv'. Damn fucking televisions. Some days, she just wanted to run away from it all, to not be Thea Queen. To have a brother who was still _there_ and a dad who was still alive and a normal family.

But that wasn't going to happen any time soon. Ollie would always be distant, her father was somewhere at the bottom of the ocean and her mum would always, _always _be someone that she could never learn to trust. Perhaps that was why she came to the Glades so often, and why she'd found comfort in Roy. He was just there, and he made all her problems seem so far away and unimportant. Getting lost in the mess of the Glades made her own world seem a million miles away. But, as she made her way through the street - sun rising behind her. She was trying to get home before anyone really noticed she was gone - especially since Ollie didn't seem to be the biggest fan of Roy and if he knew they'd been together all night, he'd probably try and kill him. Something inside Thea had this believe that he was capable of it. He'd come back from that island a changed man, she there was that instinctive feeling within her that she didn't want to know just how much he had changed.

But even the thoughts of the new, darker Ollie couldn't kill the other niggling voices in the back of Thea's mind. Even though she was being extra cautious, there was still something different. It felt as if there was someone watching her. The weight of their stare burned into her back and made her walk a little faster. It made her clutch the purse to her chest a little tighter, and her hand tried to smooth her hair. She didn't look suspicious, right? No, Thea didn't look any more suspicious then the rest of the people in the street. Except, there were no people in the street, and it unnerved her. No prostitutes or even a drug dealer preparing to make a run for it as light began to filtered in through the smog and exposed them for all they were. No, the only other person in the street had been the near-white haired girl she'd passed. Though despite her unusual hair colour, Thea barely took notice of her.

But the woman took notice of Thea. Though she kept her head down and tried not to expose too much of her face. Her white hair fell and covered the similarly startling white of an eyepatch, and a scarf was pulled up to her nose, disguising a still healing bloodied lip. Thea Queen was someone that this strange, white haired girl knew very well - or as well as one could from internet research and minor stalking. It was professional stalking, no emotional attachment, but it was sure enough stalking nonetheless. Though, the nicer word for it was 'research'. But Thea Queen, for all her wealth and glamour, was not the one who this woman was interested in. No, and neither was it her brother - Oliver. Even though Oliver Queen was a man her father spoke highly of. Was a man that, after the island, that he trusted more than Wintergreen. Which, considering the man was still legally Joey's godfather, said quite a bit.

Then again, the Wilson's had never truly been a functional family. Not since Grant... and not even really before that. Rose Wilson had never truly known her eldest half brother, but she was slowly getting to know the second. Joey was sweet, if not a little suspicious. There was the faint smell of crazy on him, as there was on herself. You had to be crazy to survive, to do the kind of work they did. The kind of crazy needed to draw a sword and chop people in half for money. Or the kind of crazy to take up a bow and arrow to the heart of the corrupted. Rose wasn't a stranger to the work of "the Hood" (and she thought his name was far more sinister than he really was), and she wasn't a stranger to the men and women wanting to join his ranks. But, she also recognized the fine line between hero worship, and full on obsession.

Which was why, she was far more interested in Roy Harper, than anyone else in Starling City. She saw in him, not only a completely bangable face and body, but there was that look of determination in him. No, it went more than determination, it was conviction. But more importantly, it was a look she'd seen before. She'd seen it in her own eyes when she tore out her eye. She'd seen it rip her life apart, like it would Roy. Because of that, Rose knew how dangerous that desire was. While 'The Hood' would never be a match for her in a fight, she knew that a kid like Roy would get chewed up by Starling City and it's crime, even if he had lived in the Glades and there was that niggling feeling of... responsibility. Responsibility to make sure he didn't mess up his life, as she did hers.

Banging him, to. Rose felt the responsibility to fuck his brains out.


End file.
